Change Academy

Latest Episodes:

50K Tuneup: Updating your Software Jan 07, 2022

Show notes

Healthy habits like eating well, getting some exercise, and managing stress go a long way toward keeping your body and life running smoothly But every once in a while, our lives can benefit from a more thorough going-over.

In that spirit, we’re going to begin 2022 with a sort of 50,000 Mile Tuneup for your life. Whether or not you currently have any warning lights flashing, we invite you to join us for a system-by-system inspection and overhaul of your health, habits, outlook, and ambitions.

Lab Experiment:

Let's take a closer look at our expectations and beliefs about aging. Where did they come from? Are they true? What evidence do we have to support them? What else is possible? What evidence can we find or generate to support those other outcomes?

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Announcing the 50,000 Mile Tune-up (Extracurricular) Jan 01, 2022

Show notes

We’d l ike to invite you to join us for something we’re calling the 50,000 Mile Tuneup: a system-by-system inspection and tuneup (or complete overhaul, if necessary) of your health, habits, outlook, and ambitions.

Each episode in the series (starting with the very next episode) will be a deep dive into a different aspect of our lives (nutrition, fitness, sleep, stress, time management, and so on) and will include lots of additional resources, tools, and (of course) lab experiments for you to explore.

So stay subscribed to get your 50,000 Mile Tune-up.

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What's Your Goal-Setting Style? Dec 27, 2021

Show notes

Takeaways:

Working toward any type of goal is likely going to benefit you – but being strategic can lower your effort and raise your success rate.
Understanding your goal-setting personality can help you be more successful in setting and reaching your goals.
Every goal-setting style has both strengths and weaknesses. Leveraging your superpowers and being aware of your blind spots can give you a real leg up.

Lab Experiment:
Identify your goal setting personality with this little quiz https://changeacademypodcast.com/personality

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Accountability is BS with Heather Parady Dec 15, 2021

Show notes

Our guest, Heather Parady, a mental health therapist turned online entrepreneur and podcaster who hosts no fewer than three podcasts!

Her Happy Brain podcast is where we originally came across her work, and in that podcast Heather explores a lot of topics that would be of interest to Change Academy listeners–which is why we invited her to join us on the podcast.

Highlights of Brock's conversation with Heather include why accountability is BS and how to get clarity on what you should be working on.

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How Fast Can You Change? Dec 02, 2021

Show notes

Some changes happen quickly; but most significant change takes time. And it’s important that your time frame for success be appropriate to the size of your goal. Otherwise, you may not be able to see--or appreciate--the progress you are making.

Takeaways:

As adults, our brains (and bodies) aren’t quite as plastic as they are when we are very young. As a result, learning a new skill may take a bit longer than you expect.
Even once you have a acquired a certain facility with them, new thoughts and behaviors still need time to become the new normal–especially if they are replacing very well-worn thoughts or behaviors.
Changes that we aren’t happy with (such as weight gain or loss of fitness) often happen so gradually that we don’t notice them until they are fairly large. Reversing them takes time too–especially in a way that’s sustainable.
Sometimes the best choice is to delay setting expectations about when you’ll arrive until the journey is well underway.

Lab Experiment (download a copy)

If you feel frustrated by a lack of progress, assess whether your timeline for success might be unrealistic or out of scale with the size of the goal. Specifically:

Are you expecting to master a complex skill or achieve a big goal more quickly than is realistic?
Are you expecting to reverse in a few weeks realities that took years to create?
Are you expecting to root out and replace long-standing behavioral or thought patterns with just a few repetitions of new patterns?

After thinking this through, you might decide to adjust your tactics in order to accelerate your progress. Or you might decide to adjust your timeline for success to match the scale of the project. (Or maybe both.)

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How Will You Tell the Story? Nov 22, 2021

Show notes

All of us will experience our share of challenges, disappointments, and hardships as we go through our lives. We may go through things that are quite traumatic. Our ability to recover and transcend these things depends a lot on how we tell the story of our lives. In this episode, we’re exploring the power of narrative psychology and how we can each use it to cultivate more resilience.

Takeaways

Life involves ups and downs, challenges and successes. The goal isn’t to eliminate those and live a flat life.
Being able to tell your story in different ways is not about lying or obfuscating the truth. It is just framing the same information with a different lens.
The way we talk about ourselves and the events in our lives has a big effect on how we react, recover and overcome life’s challenges. It also has a direct impact on whether we will or won’t reach our goals.
It may make your life seem more exciting, more virtuous, more meaningful, or more dramatic to frame it as such, but your life is not a novel – and you are likely the only one reading it.

Lab Experiment

Identify an area of your life where you feel some frustration or disappointment in your progress or prospects.
Write the story of how you got here. What are the challenges, the circumstances, the things that got in your way. What has gone wrong? Really lean into the ways in which you got a bum deal and are forced to deal with it.
Now, rewrite your story, without changing any of the factual details, but see if you can find a way to cast yourself as the hero: Resilient, resourceful, doing the best you can with the hand you’ve been dealt and managing to do pretty actually well, actually. Look for the triumphs.
Read both stories. Is one more true than the other? Is there anything to be gained by sticking with version A?

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Getting Your Second Wind Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Monica Reinagel turns the tables and interviews her usual co-host, Brock Armstrong, all about his new podcast called Second Wind Fitness.

Monica and Brock chat about

the impetus behind some big life changes that he made in the last year
how middle-aged and older people are often misunderstood (and under-served) by the fitness industry
why Brock is no longer willing to help people get fit for the wrong reasons

We’ve even got an excerpt from the Second Wind Fitness podcast for you.

If you’re interested in learning how to move more of your body, more often, and in more interesting and satisfying ways, we hope you’ll subscribe to the Second Wind Fitness podcast where ever you listen to audio.

Click here to take our listener survey.

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The Power of Giving Up Nov 03, 2021

Show notes

There’s an important distinction to be made between top level goals and lower level tactical goals. Often, getting fixated on achieving your tactical goals can lead to being tenaciousness for the sake of being tenacious.

We certainly don’t mean to suggest that tenaciousness is not a valuable trait. Being committed to doing what it takes or sticking it out when the going gets rough is definitely a characteristic of people who reach their goals. But sometimes, being tenacious requires us to be flexible. And sometimes giving up is the best thing you can do.

Takeaways:

Tenacity is a valuable trait when it is applied to the correct tactic.
You can stay steadfast in your desire to reach a higher level goal but remain flexible in your path to get there.
It can be painful to give up, especially if you have been working in a particular tactic for a while but it can still be your best path forward.
As tricky as this concept can seem, if you are honest with yourself and spend some time evaluating your situation, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort.

Lab Experiment:
Is there a project that you feel you’ve been spinning your wheels on? Take some time to consider whether giving up might be the best way to move forward.

Write down the goal of this project. What are you trying to accomplish?
Why is achieving this goal important to you (beyond just the fact that you committed to achieving it)?
Is there a higher level goal beyond this one–a top level goal that this immediate goal is in service of?
How else might you pursue that top level goal? What other tactical goals could get you there?
Consider whether abandoning your current goal might be the best move. Why or why not?

Even if this exercise doesn’t lead you to a final decision, it will almost certainly help you see the current situation from a new angle–which is always useful.

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Rhythms vs Schedules Oct 25, 2021

Show notes

We often talk about the importance of planning ahead–and sticking to the plan. But we also advocate for mindfulness: being attuned to your experience in the present moment. But what if being in the moment means you don’t feel like sticking to the plan? Which should you honor?

In this episode, we explore the pros and cons of sticking to the schedule vs. going with the flow. It all comes down to finding a healthy balance between structure and flexibility.

Takeaways:

- Honoring your needs and wants in the moment can be a powerful tool in your journey to create change – so don’t forget to pay attention to them.
- Making and sticking to a plan can keep you from getting derailed by in-the-moment impulses that aren’t aligned with your goals.
- Modifying your plans (rather than abandoning them altogether) can be a way to respect your in-the-moment reality AND your long-term objectives.

Lab Experiment:

Apply the tenets of “flexible planning” to your goal or project

- Make sure you have clearly defined goals.
- Make short-term plans.
- Listen to your gut.
- Have a measurable way to track your progress.
- Don’t force it.

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What to do When You Lapse Oct 15, 2021

Show notes

Everyone has lapses – small slips, moments, or even brief periods of time when you fall back into old habits and old patterns.

Lapses can be an opportunity to learn something useful. But all too often, a lapse leads to self-defeating and catastrophizing thoughts, which lead to further lapses. Before you know it, a series of small lapses has snowballed into a full-blown relapse–or a return to an old behavior or pattern. In this episode, we talk about how to process and rebound from those inevitable slips.

Takeaways

- Lapses happen to all of us–even those who seem like they never struggle.
- A lapse can be an opportunity that makes us even stronger.
- Telling yourself that you “always” sabotage yourself is a particularly unhelpful story.
- The more you can learn from a lapse, the better you can rebound from it–and make future lapses less likely.

Lab Experiment

- When you realize that a lapse has occurred, stay calm and be kind to yourself.
- Remember that a brief lapse will not erase all of your progress.
- Remind yourself of all the positive steps you have made. Don’t put all your focus on the one negative step.
- Reflect on your purpose in beginning this journey.
- Remember that giving up never moves you any closer to your goal.

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